Brian Watkyns

Pinewood Theatre

The Pinewood Theatre was built by Forest Drive Investments as part of a complex on Forest Drive that included flats. The auditorium was large enough to contain 1000 seats, but to provide ample leg room only 788 seats were installed. The seats were on a sloping floor in a staggered arrangement to ensure clear view […]

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Vera Jenkins

Vera Jenkins was a well known character in Pinelands for her cheery disposition, always referring to herself as “old doll”. Residents always looked forward to her cheeky somewhat irreverent poems about Pinelands and life in general at public meetings of the Ratepayers Association. Even her closest friends acknowledged she was eccentric. Vera and her husband,

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Three Train Stations

Pinelands is surrounded on four sides by railway track, so it follows that rail transport plays a major part in the history of Pinelands. Raapenberg Station was the first railway station to service Pinelands. It was originally just a low wooden deck and hut serviced by steam trains. Later a full station was built but

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Train Accident

The worst train accident in the Pinelands area took place in 1960. On Tuesday 7 June 1960 at 3 minutes to 8 am a train pulled out from Raapenberg Station in Pinelands heading towards Langa Station in heavy rain. The train was returning to Langa after dropping off passengers and was carrying 20 passengers. Six

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Pinelands Bus Company

Halfway House at the top of Woodside Drive was a wood and iron structure that had been the home of the Plague Hospital superintendent.   It became the office of the Pinelands Bus Company (Pty) Ltd when a Pinelands resident, Mrs Dennison, started the bus service between Pinelands and Mowbray in 1929. Mr. Moore, a neighbour,

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